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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself. Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman faces a rare leadership challenge: He is managing an organization that has announced its intention to spend $200 billion during the next 20 yearsdouble what the organization dispensed in its first 25 yearswhile working to permanently close its doors on December 31, 2045. Suzman, who joined the foundation in 2007 as director of global development policy, advocacy, and special initiatives, and became CEO in 2020, says the finality and scale of his mandate actually provides clarity and focus. It allows us to be very predictable and reliable for the next two decades, he says. Thats a luxury for a CEO. With clarity comes focus The foundation announced it is sunsetting earlier this year, accelerating a shutdown that Suzman says had always been part of the organizations long-term plan. At the time of the announcement, chair and board member Bill Gates said the nonprofit would concentrate its efforts on three areas: ending preventable deaths of mothers and babies, eradicating deadly infectious diseases, and putting millions of people on the path to economic prosperity. That means some programs will graduate, or be reworked. Some existing initiatives that fall outside the focus areas or may not be achievable by 2045 are moving into new partnerships. For example, the foundations work to foster technology and tools to expand economic opportunity for Americans is now part of NextLadder Ventures, a coalition of philanthropies including Ballmer Group (cofounded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer), Valhalla Foundation, Stand Together, and others. Leadership through change I asked Suzman about leading a team of more than 2,000 mission-driven employeessome of whom are seeing projects deprioritizedthrough this lengthy transition. He contends that the foundation has always had to make hard choices. When youre part of an institution that has a wider set of goals, there will be trade-offstrade-offs about how we allocate our internal resources, how we allocate Bills voice. We work on this by trying to pull people up to our shared set of goals, he says. He also echoed a common refrain I hear from virtually every CEO trying to manage an organization through massive change: You can never over-communicate enough, he says. You have to keep driving that message through in every possible channel, internal and external, to help people see the connections and understand that you know how they all come together toward the greater goal of the foundation. The foundation’s phase out comes in the wake of major changes to its structure. In 2024, Warren Buffett, who has donated $48 billion since 2006, said the foundation would not receive a contribution upon his death. That same year, Melinda French Gates resigned as co-chair after 24 years, receiving $12.5 billion from the foundation for her independent philanthropic work. In January 2025, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was renamed Gates Foundation, with Bill Gates becoming sole chair. Message to the next generation The announcement also coincides with challenges to some of the causes the foundation has championed, including vaccines and international aid. Suzman notes that the Gates Foundation is now the largest funder of the World Health Organization (WHO) after President Donald J. Trumps executive order withdrawing from the WHO. Suzman contends that philanthropy shouldnt solely provide resources for health and humanitarian organizations that governments have historically supported. But he also urges a new generation of business executives and founders to begin their giving journeys. Im the beneficiary of the amazing generosity of Bill, Warren, and Melinda . . . they themselves frequently talk about how personally fulfilling philanthropy is to them, Suzman says. He adds: We only hope therell be more following our example. The world needs it desperately.” Sailing into the sunset Have you ever had to lead the winding down of a company or organization? How did you do it, and how did you keep employees engaged? Send your stories to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com for possible use in a future newsletter. Read more: the business of giving How to build charitable giving into your business model Is the era of the benevolent billionaire really over? The top 50 U.S. donors gave $16.2 billion to charity in 2024
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E-Commerce
Leaders are praised for seeing around corners and told to skate to where the puck is going. But what if you cant even see your own feet, let alone a puck or a distant corner? Todays volatility and uncertainty obscure any clear path to the future, and the forecast isnt improving any time soon. In a recent World Economic Forum survey, 52% of experts expect an unsettled two-year horizon, 31% anticipate turbulence, and 5% foresee storms. Even if the weather were clear, setting a direction of travel is increasingly difficult as leaders face more complex problems with no obvious or easy solution. Close to 60% of business executives admit that they are missing opportunities because they cant make decisions fast enough. However bleak the landscape, there is a way to lead even when you cant see the future. This requires letting go of standard practices and building a new skill. What No Longer Serves You Leadership has long meant setting a compelling destination, planning the route, and mobilizing people to move. The classic tool kitforecast, plan, executeassumes a knowable future. With todays complexity, forecasts are guesses and plans expire fast. Leaders who arent shifting away from a predictplanact approach will see their impact erodeand their well-being with it. The reason sits in the brain. When complexity is high, trying to predict accurately and act decisively strains a leaders cognitive loadthe mental effort required to process information and choose. Its the difference between running on a clear, lit path and running on dark ice with crosswinds: far more effort, far less progress. Add time pressure and constant digital distractions, and cognitive load spikes further. When cognitive load stays high, brain fog sets in, decision speed drops, details slip, and big-picture comprehension narrows. In short, youre not the leader you intend to be. Its time to work differently. Awareness: The Quality That Changes How You Lead We cant control the pace of the world, but we can change how we meet it. We can move from a predict-plan-act approach to a stop-sense-adapt approach. The key to this approach is awareness, the ability to notice what is happeningin yourself, your team, and the larger systemand choose accordingly. With greater awareness, you enhance your perception of emotions, biases, strengths, and limitations and can read the dynamics of the team, the organization, and the market. Rather than constantly seeking answers, you stop, notice, and let answers arise. Unfortunately, our awareness is often scattered, crowded out by biases, fears, and clouded perceptions. Roughly 45% of our everyday behaviors are habitual (often outside conscious awareness), and our noisy, information-filled world clouds awareness even more. However, the case for building awareness is strong: in recent Potential Project research, teams led by highly aware leaders reported 78% higher trust in the companys leadership, 57% higher psychological safety, and 56% higher commitment to the company. For leaders, mastering three mindsets makes awareness actionable and achievable: presence to anchor us in the moment, clarity to see options and define a path forward, and adaptability to navigate new paths even when uncomfortable. Three Mindsets for the Moment Presence: Stay in the Moment Presence is the ability to be fully attentive in the momentwith ourselves, the people in front of us, the task at hand, or whats happening around us. Our research indicates that we are distracted even when we think we are paying attention, about 37% of the time. But when we can be present in the moment rather than being pulled by a million thoughts, things slow down and its easier to focus our attention on the things that matter, not just the things that squeak the loudest. Clarity: Find a Path Clarity is the ability to rise above uncertainty and chaos rather than trying to solve for them. Its not about having clear answers all of the time, but about having a clear mind that can better find the signal within the noise. Clarity of mind feels spacious and calm. It is the difference between being in the clouds and feeling overwhelmed versus being able to step back into the vastness of the sky and see the clouds more clearly. It is a welcome alternative when nearly 2/3 of leaders say they experience information overload from trying to keep up with texts, chats, emails, and meetings. Clarity helps us to see ways forward, even when it is foggy Adaptability: Navigate the Path Adaptability is the ability to shift approaches as things change. Adaptable leaders accept new circumstances or unfamiliar territory with openness rather than holding too tightly to familiar routines or past experiences. Adaptable leaders often believe that change is inevitable, natural, and a source of growth. With a mindset of adaptability, leaders can navigate more confidently down new paths, even when the unfamiliar feels hard. The marriage of Awareness and AI As we regularly witness, AI can scan oceans of data, summarize patterns, and surface signals faster than any team. This is a huge advantage for leaders. For example, AI can give us consistent, data-informed feedback on our leadership and correct for blind spots we have about our strengths and weaknesses. AI can synthesize data about how our organization and employees are doing and surface trends, opportunities, and challenges that may have escaped our notice. However, AI is a leaders advantage only if paired with awareness. Awareness adds the human context machines dont hold: history, social dynamics, values, and the lived experience of people affected by decisions. It also keeps us alert to borrowed biasassumptions in the data or model that would steer us wrong if left unquestioned. Used together, AI expands what we can see; awareness ensures we interpret wisely. Here are a few ways to start strengthening your skills of awareness, with and without the help of technology: Dont outsource connection to yourself and others. Take advantage of devices that help monitor your levels of distraction and track heart rate variability, pulse, and stress levels. These can help us be more present with ourselves and take corrective action to be more present with others. But over-relying on devices to tell us how we feel diminishes our capacity for self-awareness. Similarly, using tools for feedback on a team shouldnt prevent you from reading a room, understanding others feelings, and making a connection. Clear the mental clutter. There is so much already competing with our attention, and the abundance of AI resources can get overwhelming. It is harder to practice awareness when our brains are full. The best approach is a both/and: use AI as a filter and summarizer, for example, but watch that it doesnt tip over into a source of distraction. Try new things: When we implement new routines or learn new skills, we become more adaptable, capable of seeing habitual patterns and breaking free of them. Experiment with AI-enabled apps that can suppot you in this pursuit in fun and rewarding ways. But dont hesitate to try something very simple like brushing your teeth with your nondominant hand or taking a new route to the grocery store. You dont need a perfect forecast to leadjust a better beam When visibility is low, speedor constant actionis not a leadership virtue. Better to change the way you see and respond. Awareness widens your field of view and keeps you oriented to what needs to be doneone confident step at a time. When we stop to be present, sense the signals with clarity, and adapt in short, honest moves, we demonstrate to our teams that we are steering with care.
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E-Commerce
It feels like they match anything. Black. Silver. White. Cream. All rendered in gloss and knit. I wasnt sure how the silhouette would look in person when I first saw it in photos from Junya Watanabes Fall/Winter 2024-25 show. But they made my stomach churn in just the right way. I needed them. And so did a lot of other people. The New Balance 1906L launched last year, kicking off a new type of shoe: the sneaker loafer, aka (and please never say this term aloud) the snoafer. With a loafer silhouette, technical fabrics, and bouncy foam outsoles, they represented a new mix of formal wear and street style. Nike, Hoka, and Puma all quickly followed suit with snoafers of their own. While in Madrid, I snagged some by Hispanitas for my wifeonly learning that they were the stores last pair as I checked out. Snoafers did more than redefine what we consider a sneaker since launching last year; they resuscitated loafers more broadly. Karis Munday, an analyst at the fashion trend firm Edited, says loafer sales are up 33% year over year for men and 28% for women this fall, in a surge she doesnt see fizzling out soon. The sneaker-inspired iteration will be a must-have investment, offering a smart-casual solution that serves equally well in a business casual environment as it does for weekend wear, she shares over email, calling the 1906L the blueprint for the industry. But how did New Balance know it could pull this idea off? A loafer is a preppy shoe. New Balance has preppy connotations, says Charlotte Lee, the design manager at New Balance who created the 1906L. Its a Venn diagram . . . where the center is the sneaker loafer. New Balance 1906L [Photo: New Balance] The evolution of streetwear Lee is a trained footwear designer who has been at New Balance for over a decade. Shes obsessed with aesthetics and culture, but says shes always been intimidated by the streetwear side of her profession. I still feel like an outsider, even though I’m obviously, well and truly, an insider, she says. Indeed, once disregarded by the fashion industry, streetweara mash-up of fashion aesthetics stemming from city subcultures like hip-hop and skatehas been on a 20-year ascendancy into mass culture. Now its become part of the lexicon of dress, often dissociated with any cultural origin. In 2023, I was at the Musinsa Empty shop in Seoul when I pulled a ripped, decaled pair of jeans off the rack and mentioned to the shopkeeper that they had a street vibe. You could trace the pants’ visual lineage to punk rock in London (literal street style), or more recently, to Virgil Ablohs Pyrex Vision, which started by screen-printing on deadstock jeans. The manager looked at me blankly, saying, Thats not street. Sneakers are the greatest motif in streetwearand theyve very much become the mass-produced art of our time as sculptures molded for our feet. As I debated with designer Jeff Staple recently, theres no certainty that such a motif will keep its relevance. It seems like a dozen new sneakers fill our feeds each day, and no art movement lasts forever. Impressionism and surrealism both burned out within 20 years. Designing the New Balance 1906L The 1906L is so interesting because it offers a thesis on how sneakers can evolve to stay relevant. It’s a rare project that was able to cut through the noise to redefine the industry. And perhaps it was Lees point of view, as an insider-outsider who is not too beholden to tradition, that was so crucial in manifesting it. “For me, it’s not just looking at streetwear; it’s looking at all facets of culture to be able to try and inform the shoes I’m working on,” Lee says. “[The 1906L] was born from the concept of integration, the juxtaposition between two worlds: the influence of formal dressing within society and culture, and fashion and trend.”As Lee tracked a bit of buzz around loafersspotting them here and there across the luxury market in the early 2020sshe discovered her perfect juxtaposition for sneakers. It was an indulgent project for me, because it was cheeky. And it was a bit like, Can we? Can’t we? Shall we? she recalls. But once the concept was in her brain, she realized the form immediately. This is not a flex, but I literally drew one with CAD [computer-aided-design software], she says, laughing. Truly, her first draft made it to production, minus a few slight adjustments. When she initially presented the design to the team, the response was a rare, simple, unanimous yes. This was 18 months or more before the shoe was actually released. She says, only upon further reflection on the project, that the shoe solidified so smoothly because it just had to be made this way to feel authentically New Balance. The loafer silhouette already spoke for itself. And the rest was about framing that loafer with New Balance performance DNA. It had to be mesh initially . . . like, it had to have that kind of classic silver overlay, the 2000s running aesthetic, she says. That was all I needed to do, because I knew then the rest was all New Balance DNA, like identity, and I kind of squished it in and made sure it fit in the shape and within the boundary of what a loafer is. More probing reveals a touch more thought, however quickly it came together. When I ask why my shoes feel like they match anything in my closet, she notes that was by design. She pulled the blacks, whites, and even the silver in my shoe from New Balances existing line of lifestyle sneakers, like the 1906R. These colors have already been proven for a wide variety of fashion contexts. riginalGrand [Photo: Cole Haan] A trend that wont die Notably, Lee wasnt the first to mash up formal shoes and sneakers. That idea likely belongs to designer Salehe Bembury, who stuck EVA foam on Cole Haan wingtips in 2014 for his riginalGrand, but the concept never quite gelled to reach a larger scale. Lee had a feeling the shoe would be a hit due to its polarizing, disjointed identity. Loafers are among the most versatile formal shoeone that can be dressed up more than a boat shoebut are also easier to doff and don than a New Balance sneaker. I wear them all the time, not because Im being self-indulgent, but because I’m lazy, she says. Like, you just slip your foot in, and off you go. But she was also worried that the shoe was arriving too late, and that loafers would already be over by the time it shipped. It turned out to be the opposite. Were way past launch, and I think it’s still continuing, she says. I think what we’re seeing now is a diversification of integration . . . how can we integrate two worlds that shouldn’t belong, but when they’re in perfect harmony, they do belong? I actually believe its not just about mashing up two unlikely ideas. I think the snoafer has given us one of the first truly convincing theses on how the sneaker can evolve, and how we can reconcile our penchant for foams with wider, more formal visions of self-expression. Knwls Air Max Muse [Photo: Nike] The Knwls Air Max Musea collaboration between Nike and the London fashion house Knwlsfeels like the perfect acceleration of concept. At first glance, you might call it a ballet sneaker, and it is. The ballet sneaker is partly inspired by the ballet flats of dance class, but when you really study where their silhouettes are going on the chunkier end of the outsole equationlike the Muse, youll also see the almost hoofed posture of a Tabi heel, and a smooth shadow of a loafer. Sneex (created by the founder of Spanx), like other head-on attempts at a high-heel sneaker, are pretty cringe. Id argue thats because they werent refined within the established design language and limitations of the sneaker. Meanwhile, the Muse is basically a heel for the sneaker ageright down to its sharply pointed toe boxand Id suggest the Simone Rocha tracker ballet flat verges toward the same idea. Today, were witnessing an evolution of the sneaker itself, born from a culture finally prepared to reconcile its technical materials and motifsnot simply as fodder for athletic performance or fashion trend, but as a tradition of design thats essential to craft and culture alike. Just please dont call it a snoafer.
Category:
E-Commerce
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